


Coincidences

by PotentialManager



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Original Character-centric, au with more crystal gems, honestly this is a very self indulgent oc and friend's ocs au, more characters will be tagged as they become more prominent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2020-10-20 10:56:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20674235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PotentialManager/pseuds/PotentialManager
Summary: "When a gem is formed, they are assigned a specific role and they must follow that role under the regime. Failure to do so can end in the destruction of said gem, or in the case of the gem wars from millenniums ago, rebellion against Homeworld order.Humans call it fate. I, on the other hand, find it completely coincidental that we have ended up where we are today."Homeworld is the only home that Cats Eye has ever known, so how will she be able to handle getting stuck on Earth with Peridot after a mission gone wrong and Steven and the Crystal gems flipping her world upside down?





	1. Before the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> As stated in the tags, this is completely self-indulgent OC-centric fic for me and my friends. Basically it's an AU that explores what would the Crystal Gems be like if seven Crystal Gems "survived" the war rather than just the main three from the prospective of an outsider. It follows the show very closely, but might diverge in some points due to knowledge from other characters that can come to light earlier rather than later. If you like it please let me know!

When a gem is formed, they are assigned a specific role and they must follow that role under the regime. Failure to do so can end in the destruction of said gem, or in the case of the gem wars from millenniums ago, rebellion against Homeworld order.  
Humans call it fate. I, on the other hand, find it completely coincidental that we have ended up where we are today.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Yellow Diamond, you must stop this,” Rose Quartz shouted at the colony leader, “They’re just humans! These planets, especially Earth, do not deserve to be destroyed for the sake of gem colonies! I’ve seen amazing things during my time on Earth and I am here to stop you from furthering the destruction of it’s wonderful ecosystem!”  
My world, Homeworld, was ran by four, now three, leading diamonds; White, Blue, Yellow, and our wrongfully departed Pink. It’s Homeworld’s goal to conquer the whole universe for the betterment of gemkind, even if that means the destruction of a few planets to advance us further. Sadly, one of quartzes from Pink Diamond’s colony found “error” in our ways and planned, and thus forth executed, the demise of her leader, and subsequently started one of our largest wars yet. Despite being from Pink Diamond’s only planet, she was able to rise up and bring in gems from other courts and that was how she was able to bring in Emerald, my owner, who is under Yellow Diamond. This is where we find ourselves today. Rose Quartz and Emerald (who dragged me along, unbeknownst to their plan) stormed Yellow Diamond’s courtroom to stop the destruction of Earth and other planets alike or else they’d have to resort to drastic measures. I’m sure they meant shattering her like Pink, but I don’t want to think about that and would rather hope for a different, merciful, option.  
“All of this petty Rose,” Yellow DIamond spat out, “Stop this and I might entertain the idea of not shattering you and allowing Emerald back into my court.” Rather than stepping down and agreeing like any other smart gem would, Rose and Emerald shared a nod between themselves and my owner pulled out a blaster from her gem located on her thigh. She pointed the gun at Yellow Diamond’s own gem, as if to destroy it, but before she could pull the trigger, Yellow whipped out her own weapon, a long sharp spear, and knocked Emerald to the ground.  
I went to reach for my owner, but fear held me back. If I showed her any sympathy, I could be considered part of the rebellion. My gem would be destroyed if I were to become known as a conspirator against Homeworld.  
Yellow Diamond speared Emerald straight through the middle, and I swore those agonizing screams would haunt me for the rest of my existence. She reverted back into her gem, causing it to crash to the ground and crack down the middle. Yellow lifted her spear high and brought it down in attempt to completely shatter the gemstone, but, before she could, Rose Quartz jumped in and saved it with her shield and swung her sword towards the diamond.  
“Cats Eye,” she called to me, struggling to keep back Yellow Diamond, “Grab Emerald and let’s get out of here!” I looked back and forth between her and Yellow Diamond. I barely knew her, but Rose’s eyes were pleading and filled with some sort of sadness, as if I were an old companion about to betray her. Yellow looked sharply at me, her eyes daring me to go with the rebellious gem. I swallowed hard, bowed my head to follow the respectful arm crossing, and muttered out, “I only serve my diamond.”  
Rose looked crestfallen, and I’m sure Emerald would’ve too, but the only way of life I knew was that of Homeworld. Plus, what the diamonds were doing wasn’t all that bad, it was for the betterment of all gems alike! If only the rebellion could see that…  
In a fit of determination, Rose Quartz was able to push Yellow Diamond off with just enough time to grab Emerald’s gem off of the ground and make a dash to the wrap pad; never to be seen again until the war actually began.  
All was silent in the courtroom and the only ones that remained were Yellow Diamond and her pearl. I had no clue what would happen to me, I would either be praised for my loyalty and (hopefully) sent to be taken in by a new owner or I would be punished for the actions made by previous owner.  
“M-my diamond,” the yellow pearl was finally able to choke out, “What are we to do with the cats eye?” The large diamond huffed and turned my way and, by the stars, was she intimidating. She towered a good 8 feet above me, for I was only a bit shorter than a peridot with their limb enhancers.  
“Well, it’s obvious she’s not part of the rebellion,” she sniffed, lifting my chin up to get a good look at my gem, “My, and what an ugly gem you are as well.” I set my eye downcast in shame. When I was formed, something went wrong in the kindergarten and I came out much larger than my cats eye counterparts, making me unfit to perform the petit roles my kind is made for. I was set to be broken into shards for the upcoming cluster, but Emerald took me in as hers. Cats eyes are much similar to pearls, meant to be pretty to look at and act as servants or pets, but with my deformity I wasn’t pretty or cute to look at. “Don’t look so downtrodden yet, little gem. Considering the high standing Emerald held in my court, it’s quite surprising you didn’t follow her. Can you tell me why?”  
I struggled to look my leader in the eye, “Homeworld’s rules are set for a reason and everything the diamond authority does is for the better of all gems. Joining something as ridiculous as the rebellion is only idiotic and it should be brought down. I only live to serve my diamond, even if that means going against the one who owns me.”  
“Very good. There should be a place in my court for you yet, my little gem. Show that rebellion that we’re not all that bad, hm?”  
And that was how I came to work directly for Yellow Diamond. Cats Eyes can’t feel emotions, they’re not made to, but I was ecstatic to work for the one who only wanted the best for Homeworld.  
Little did I know I was only being used as a pawn in her game.  
…  
“This is Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG, reporting with urgent news for Yellow Diamond.” A voice cut through the usually silent courtroom that held Yellow Pearl and I, for Yellow Diamond usually did her work alone in her private study.  
“Excuse me, but you can’t just barge in her and demand to speak to Yellow Diamond. You must set up an appointment through me first and then you’ll be considered for a hearing.” Yellow Pearl’s shrill voice rang out. She seemed to always get upset when others didn’t follow her rules, despite her only being a pearl.  
“I’m the head kindergartener for Planet Earth! I have an emergency to report to Yellow Diamond about the abandoned kindergarten and the Crys-”  
“You still have to set up an appointment to speak to Yellow Diamond; emergency or not.”  
“Listen, we don’t have time-”  
At this point, I had grown tired of the two voiced gradually getting louder at each other as their conversation (if you could even call it that) progressed, so I stepped out from the back to, hopefully, bring peace between the two gems.  
“What seems to be the problem here?” I questioned. Even though I was a cats eye, but I was well respected (well, as respected as you can get as a low-life gem) in Yellow Diamond’s court. If there was a problem, they went through me.  
“Ah, finally someone who can help me,” the peridot called out in relief, “This pearl is no help and obviously doesn’t know her place-” Yellow Pearl’s cheeks flared orange, but remained silent as she was outranked, “I came here with urgent news for Yellow Diamond about the kindergarten placed on Earth.”  
“And what news would that be?” I questioned. As urgent as she made it seemed, most gems came rushing in with ‘urgent news’ for Yellow Diamond, but most of the time they were just making up excuses to meet and see Yellow Diamond for themselves, so we usually tried to get it out of them before sending them to her. We learned to do that the hard way last time.  
“It’s the Crystal Gems! They weren’t wiped out when Rose Quartz disappeared. They’re still protecting Earth and attempting to destroy the kindergarten! Even though it does seem like Rose Quartz is missing, there is another rose quartz called a Steven.”  
“The Crystal Gems,” my legs felt weak, “But they were destroyed? The rebellion was wiped out!”  
“They’re small in numbers, but well formed and led strongly by a fusion called Garnet and Rose Quartz’s pearl.”  
“We must get Yellow Diamond, I’m-” I started to say to Yellow Pearl, but it seemed Yellow Diamond had already heard everything from the start.  
“Those Crystal Gems must be destroyed!” She roared as she stormed out of her study.  
“M-my diamond.” We all stuttered out, rushing to cross our arms into a diamond shape.  
“Peridot, is it,” Yellow Diamond turned to face her, who nodded in return, her face giving away that she couldn’t believe she was in the presence of the Yellow Diamond, “I will send you off with the best war ship and quartz warrior I can provide, along with my prized cats eye. I will expect nothing less than complete victory against the Crystal Gems. Am I to be understood?” Stars practically danced in Peridot’s eyes as she nodded furiously. I, on the other hand, was not too pleased to be sent off to face the people that almost ruined my life, were it not for the generosity of Yellow Diamond.  
“My diamond,” I said quietly, slowly uncrossing my arms, “Are you sure it’s a wise decision to send me against the Crystal Gems? I’m sure another quartz warrior would be more suitable for the job.”  
“Nonsense,” she started turned away, “And if there’s any more complaining, I will send you back to where you belong. Now, you and Pearl will gather everything Peridot needs.” And with that, she returned back to her study.  
Yellow Pearl put a hand on my shoulder before leading me and the peridot out of the room. As annoying, mean, and shrill as she could be, with us being together for so long and both belonging to a lower class, it was no wonder we grew close as companions.  
However, all the comfort couldn’t prepare me for the world of hurt I was about to enter.


	2. The Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cats Eye comes face to face with one of her biggest fears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The arc of this story mostly follows the show word for word, but as we get closer to learning about Pink Diamond and more about Homeworld and its gems is when this story will start diverging from the exact story line of the show

I’d never personally known many quartzes during my lifespan, but from what I’d seen, I never liked them. Especially the jasper I was stuck being escorted with Peridot and the lapis who had relayed most of the information to her about the Crystal Gems.   
I still couldn’t see why Yellow Diamond needed me to go on this mission.  
And Jasper felt the same.  
“I still don’t understand why I need to take orders from a decoration.” Jasper sneered at me. I had to keep reminding myself that we were just mere minutes away from Earth and then I could return home once we were done; never to hear from the infuriating quartz again. However, Yellow Diamond wouldn’t be too pleased to hear that I put a few scratches on her star warrior.  
“Same reason why I’m taking orders from a lower gem,” Peridot answered, clearly as annoyed as I was, “You know better than anyone else that this is a special cats eye and speaker for Yellow Diamond herself, we must treat her with such respect.”   
At least I could grow to like Peridot. Jasper? Not so much. And not even to mention the blue court gem that just had to tag along.   
Lapis stayed off in the corner; glaring at every move we made. I could tell she was hiding details about what was going on, but that could be expected from a gem that hailed from the blue court. They only think about themselves, but I suppose that’s why they’re known as the aristocratic court.   
“We’re approaching Earth, prepare to land in ten minutes.”  
Thank the stars.  
Or curse them.  
I honestly couldn’t tell what was worse; the impending doom of meeting my past owner  
or staying on the ship with grouchy, grouchier, and grouchiest.   
I walked over to where Peridot was commandeering the ship to look out onto the land. The biggest screen showed a small group scrambling around the beach.   
“They’re attempting to shoot at us.” I noticed dryly. They were obviously the Crystal Gems. Only gems could possess the arrows they were shooting.   
“Like that would even make a dent in this ship,” Peridot laughed, “This is the newest and greatest technology from Homeworld. Even if these Crystal Gems were able to get new gem technology, that couldn’t even make a scratch on this baby.” I zoomed in on one of the smaller screens to get a better look at the group of eight. I only recognized two of them; Rose Quartz’s fabled pearl and Emerald. Although, Emerald had drastically changed since the last time I’d seen her. She was dressed more like a war veteran than the high council member I once knew her to be.  
“Are those… Rose Quartz’s light cannons,” I zoomed on to the weapons in question, “Can this ship handle those?”   
“Well, even though I was made long after the war had ended, I was recruited to help create weapons and machinery specifically meant to counter whatever Rose threw at us during the war. Watch this!” Peridot answered excitedly (perhaps a bit too excitedly…) as she flipped a switch, making the ship move to block the rays.   
“They disintegrate the second they touch the outer shield! Isn’t it just amazing?” Maybe amazing to a peridot, but to a cats eye, it meant literally nothing.  
“Are we about to land yet?” Jasper pushed her way between Peridot and I to also look at the screens.   
“Yes, of course,” Peridot looked back at the controls, “Approaching land… now.” The hand like ship hit the ground, causing everything outside to shake. Lapis took this as her cue to stand behind us as we were lifted out of the ship.   
Cue the anxiety to return.  
“That’s them,” Peridot said as she neared the tip of one of the fingers, “The ones who keep breaking my machines.”   
“This is it?” Jasper joined up with her, clearly disgusted by the group.  
“Jasper,” Peridot obviously had enough of the quartz by now, “They keep interfering with my work!”   
“Looks like another waste of my time.”  
At her comment, I decided that it was time to face my fears. If the group gems were as pathetic as Jasper were making them out to be, then maybe seeing Emerald wouldn’t be so bad as I was making it out to be.   
“Cats Eye!” Emerald exclaimed when she saw me step out from the shadows, because unlike her, I hadn’t changed since the war, but we weren’t the only ones who recognized each other as I pulled Lapis out with me.  
“Lapis!” The smallest member cried out at the same time as Emerald did so to me.   
“This is there base?” Jasper questioned the blue gem.  
“Yes…” She looked away from both groups.  
“You need to leave, immediately!” One of the gems (a disgusting fusion, no less) suddenly threatened us.   
“Yeah! Step off!” an amethyst agreed.  
“This is not a gem controlled planet.” A pearl tried to reason, but to no avail. We still advanced off the ship. Jasper was right about one thing; the group just looked sad and scared, not ready to fight.   
“Neither of you saw Rose Quartz?” Jasper asked Lapis and Peridot. She was obviously looking for a more ‘worthy’ opponent, but perhaps she didn’t know what happened to the infamous war general.  
“Rose Quartz disappeared years ago,” I answered for the two, “She was presumably destroyed. Good riddance, I say.” I peeked over at the Crystal Gems at my last statement to see I struck a nerve. The diamonds would be glad to hear I confirmed the demise of their old enemy.   
“Well, what a shame,” Jasper sighed, “I was so looking forward to beating her to the ground, but this is all that’s left of her army? Some lost, defective pearl; an overcooked runt; an emerald and jadeite who think they can fight; two idiot nobodies who aren’t even gems; and this shameless display? And what is that?” She pointed to the smallest one behind the other seven, instantly alarming them and forcing them into a protective stance.   
“It calls itself a Steven.” Peridot answered.   
“He’s just a human,” Lapis cut in, “He isn’t a threat at all! He’s not one of them!”  
“I know what a human is,” Jasper spat back, “You don’t need me for this, just blast them with the ship.” She waved nonchalantly and walked back towards the ship.  
“Ugh, fine.” Peridot scoffed. I rolled my eyes at the scenario; why didn’t we do this in the first place? Although, what happened next, I would’ve never foresaw. The Crystal Gems started yelling at each other about saving lives and blah, blah, blah, but when Peridot fired the shot and the dust cleared away, the group was still standing.   
“T-that shield, that symbol,” I gasped out at the giant shield that protected the eight. At my statement, Jasper spun around, just as surprised as I was, “Y-you have the power of Rose Quartz!”  
“Now do you believe that I needed an escort.” Peridot chastised Jasper, but rather than agreeing, she just started barking out orders,  
“Fire a barrage, wide spread!” This instantly split the group up, allowing Jasper to get near Rose Quartz… or Steven… or whatever it was.  
“Rose! Why do you look like that? Why are you so weak?”  
“Don’t hurt him!” Lapis cried out, running over to them.  
“You knew about this!” I accused her.  
“It wasn’t relevant to the mission!” She could try to reason all she wanted, but she and I both knew that it was and I knew she had been hiding something all along. Who knew it would’ve been as important as it was.  
“I’m taking you to directly to Yellow Diamond the second we return to Homeworld once we finish the mission. Everyone will know that you were hiding information about Rose Quartz and you’ll be punished accordingly.” I narrowed my eye at her. I didn’t care about how powerful of a gem she was, what she had done was as bad as joining the rebellion itself.   
“Forget about the mission.” Jasper growled out.  
“What?!” Peridot screeched.  
“Yellow Diamond needs to see this thing.” Jasper answered and, for once, I agreed.   
Suddenly, the fusion appeared from under the sand, probably to save the weird Rose Quartz thing, but Jasper was quicker and pulled out her gem destabilizer and cut the fusion in half; reverting them to their respective ruby and sapphire gems. The other Crystal Gems looked horrified, but that abomination got what it deserved.  
“I was there, you know,” Jasper started nearing the Steven again, “At the first war for this garbage planet, I fought against your armies, I respected your tactics, but this, this is sick.” The others tried stopping Jasper from taking the thing, but we all knew she would be able to overcome them with a flick of her wrist, “I don’t understand what you’re planning Rose, but look; your base is taken, your armies are ruined. You. Have. Failed.”   
As I had presumed, Jasper was able to knock out the small gem and destabilize the others with just one hand. For such a strongly powered gem, the Steven was quite weak and was knocked out with one hit from Jasper’s helmet, but I suppose the Crystal gems were weak all around.   
“Gather the gems and let’s get back onto the ship,” Jasper ordered, “The destabilizer only works for a little while before they return back to normal. We need to put them into cells before they do so.” As she made her way back to the ship, Peridot collected the fallen gems and I grabbed Lapis by her forearm.   
“Don’t think for a second you’re off the hook just because we were able to capture the Crystal Gems. You’ll be joining them in a cell as well.”  
…

“Argh! If that blue court gem keeps singing, I’ll lose what little sanity I have left,” I growled out. She had been singing ever since she reformed. “Jasper, go take care of it. I’m going to find someplace quiet.”   
“We need to go back to Earth and complete the mission,” Peridot argued with me, “The kindergarten-”   
“Yellow Diamond takes priority,” I snapped back, “Set a course for Homeworld immediately. Come and get me once we get close and that sapphire shuts up.” With that, I walked up.  
Sadly, to find a place with peace and quiet I had to trek through the maze of cells.  
“C-cats Eye?” A voice questioned. I stopped in my tracks, my annoyance skyrocketing, and flicked my eye over to the cell I stopped in front of.  
“Yes?”  
“I’m Jet.” Right. A gem formed from petrified wood. A gem that’s not really a gem…  
“Good to know. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” What a waste of my time. I needed to find a place to relax.  
“W-wait! You’re a friend of Emerald’s, right?”   
“I haven’t known Emerald since the war. Even then I didn’t really know her, she’s a traitor and a liar.”  
“T-that’s not true! A-and she speaks so highly of you? How could speak about her like that?”  
“A gem against Homeworld’s will is a gem against everyone. You should know that, shouldn’t you? You don’t bite the hand that feeds you and gems like you deserve to be punished by the very hand you bit.” Jet’s dark skin paled at my words, but I was only telling her what she was trying to ignore. I turned away to continue on my way when I felt the ship shake and heard Jasper cry out. I instantly turned back to the small gem and growled out, “If your friends have anything to do with this, I will not hesitate to punish you all myself!” With that, I ran back to the ship helm.   
“Peridot,” I yelled as I ran into the room, “We need to get out of here. Now.”  
“What,” she questioned as she turned away from the controls, “What do you mean?” However; before I could answer, the Crystal Gems, excluding the fusion Garnet, came bursting through the door.  
“This is what you get for messing with our planet!” The amethyst roared out (as well as she could with her stunted height). She pulled a spiked whip out of her gem and attempted to wrap it around Peridot, but I could not allow that to happen.  
I had never used my weapon since the war began. This was the time that changed that.  
When my three clawed glove cut through the whip, Amethyst turned towards Emerald and cried out, “I thought you said she didn’t have a weapon!”  
“I-I never knew she did…” Emerald stuttered out. Unbeknownst to them, every gem has the potential to summon a weapon, but most lower class gems aren’t taught how to do so. After I joined Yellow Diamond, it was required for me to learn, just in case of emergencies.   
As much as I wanted to stay and fight the Crystal Gems one on seven (for I was sure Peridot would be of no help and Jasper was doing who knows what with Garnet), I grasped Peridot’s arm tightly and dragged her out of the chair as fast as I could. When we both reached the area to activate the escape pods, I locked eyes with Emerald.  
“You don’t have to do this Cats Eye, we’ll accept you for who you are, join us! Come back home with me. You too Peridot! We can help each other protect Earth!” She pleaded.  
“If you think we’ll ever join you clods, you’ve got another thing coming!” Peridot screeched for the both of us and activated the escape pod.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, if you've liked this please let me know!


	3. Friend Ship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot and Cats Eye try to get rid of the Crystal Gems once and for all, but things don't work out the way they have planned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this story is getting a lot more readers than I thought it would, so thanks so much for checking this story out!

“...I thought you said your droids repaired these?” I asked in disgust as I looked around the warp pad hub. Either she was crazy or didn’t know what ‘repaired’ meant.   
Her eye twitch told me to go with crazy.  
“These Crystal Gems are menaces.” She activated her touchscreen, presumably to find out what happened.   
“Look I was right! My plan worked perfectly!” Was followed by the familiar sound of a warp pad activating. Peridot and I whipped around to see said group was squashed together on one of the few working warp pads.  
“Good morning!” The Steven waved at us.  
“How did all of you even manage to fit on there?” I asked incredulously. However; my question was drowned out by Peridot screeching,  
“What?! How did you even know we were here?”  
“ We found a secret way to track you, and we'll never tell you how, even if you ask nicely.” The Steven mocked us by pulling his eyelid down and stuck his tongue out.  
“Peridot! Cats Eye! We’re here to-” Garnet started to threaten us, but it seemed like Pearl was too excited and cut her off.  
“And you’ll never get away with this!”  
“I feel like they don’t know what they’re doing.” I muttered to Peridot. If they were trying to scare us, but it obviously wasn’t working and only annoyed her more than anything.  
“Don’t you Gems have anything better to do than annoy me?”  
“Nope, we’re gonna-” Obsidian tried to answer, but Pearl got in the way once more.  
“Prepare to be annoyed!”  
“We don’t have time for this,” I yelled out, “This planet has an expiration date and I don’t want to stick around to find out when!”   
“You got that right.” Peridot agreed, she pointed a blaster with formed from her enhancers at the Gems, but the force of it knocked her over and caused her to miss and hit a pillar instead.   
“That’s it! I’m taking them out!” Pearl, who was the only one not stuck beneath Steven’s shield, called out before leaping towards us.  
“Pearl, wait!” Garnet tried to warn her, but it was too late. Peridot had already immobilized her in a green laser.  
“Ha! You’re going the wrong way!” She then threw Pearl back into the group, causing her to collide with Steven and made Garnet the one holding up the broken pillar.  
“Get them!” She shouted at the rest, too busy from being crushed under the pillars.  
“I got Cats Eye!” Amethyst called out excitedly, her eyes glinting at me threateningly at me.  
“Peridot!” I screamed in fear, jumping into her arms, narrowly missing the spinning gem and causing her to ram into another pillar.  
“Oh thank the stars.” I breathed out as Peridot maneuvered us through various attacks, laughing tauntingly and jumping on to a warp pad.  
“Why haven’t we warped anywhere yet?” I growled out to her.  
“Agh! Does anything on this cruddy planet work?!” Her cries of frustration answered my question.  
“I do!” Steven said triumphantly before hitting Peridot straight in the head with his shield. I was too busy trying to stay in Peridot’s arms after that to notice a pillar hurling towards us that would send us hurling into the air. Pearl and Garnet scrambled to catch us, but ended up knocking each other over in the process, allowing Peridot to fly us over to the warp pad that the Crystal Gems had arrived on.  
“Wow, that’s just sad.” I laughed at them.  
“Yeah, I almost feel sorry for them.” Peridot laughed in agreement. She mimicked the eye thing Steven had done to us earlier and warped us away.

…

“Why did we come back to the kindergarten?” I asked once I finally jumped out of Peridot’s arms. Not one of my finest moments while dealing with the Crystal Gems, but I had no other way out of getting away from those attacks while sticking close to my forced companion.  
“Spur of the moment decision,” she started pacing back and forth, “Those Clods are tracking us somehow. We can’t stay here for long, but we need to figure out how they’re tracking us and then find a way to get them out of our way.”  
“Well they always seem to know when where we are when we use the warp pads. Could it be linked to that?”  
“I noticed that as well… They do seem to be the only ones who use the warp pads on Earth, so they must’ve found out a way to track the usage of the warp pads when I started my mission here. They only seemed to be able to know where I was once they figured out I was here.”  
“How did they manage that, though? Surely they don’t have the technology to do that.”  
“We don’t really need to bother ourselves with that right now. Assuming that is how they’re tracking us, we need to calculate our next move very carefully. We need to figure out how to get rid of them once and for all.”  
“And how do you propose we do that,” I asked, exasperated, and jumped down from the warp pad to be in front of her, “We’re outnumbered, Peridot! We can’t exactly fight them! Every encounter we’ve had with them ends with us narrowly escaping! One false move and we’re done for!”   
“We need to find a place where we can fight them from afar, preferably somewhere where we can use weapons against them… And I think I know just the place.”

…

“An old colony ship?” I asked once we warped into place.  
“Ah, so you’ve seen one before.” She noted and walked towards the broken down ship.  
“Well, obviously,” I rolled my eye at her, rushing to walk next to her, “I wasn’t formed yesterday; I was just wondering how this is going to help us. I mean, it’s falling to pieces!”  
“That much is true, but in the beginning of my mission I was able to run some diagnostics on it and, while it’s unable to fly, most of the ship is still usable. Some tweaks here and there and we could totally use this to destroy those Crystal Clods once and for all! However, if my hypothesis is correct about how they’re tracking us-”  
“You mean our hypothesis?”  
“Details, details. If it’s correct, we’ll only have a few minutes to get everything up and running, so we need to move fast.” With that we rushed into the ship.  
Thankfully, finding the control room was pretty easy, but Peridot was having issues with some things.  
“Stupid planet! Growing over everything and making everything useless! The work I’ve done is pretty rudimentary, but it’s as good as it’s going to get considering the circumstances and time restraint.”As if right on time, we heard a loud bang, akin to door to the ship opening and closing.  
“Peridot, I think that’s them.” I whispered, apprehensively looking around. While I did believe in Peridot’s plan, the Crystal Gems had a way to get around almost anything, making me wary about everything.  
“Show time,” Peridot practically sang, while pressing a button that caused a huge screen to appear with the Crystal Gems in it, “Wow! You Gems really are as dull as dirt!” At her comment, the pearl pointed back at the screen and seemed to yell something at us, but all that came out was muffled, unintelligent garble. Peridot turned to me, “Did you understand any of that?” I shook my head, so she turned back to the screen and said, “Can you speak louder? Some of these communicators are gunked up.”  
It looked like Steven cleared up something near the bottom of the screen and suddenly his voice came through loud and clear.  
“Pearl says, ‘You’re the dull ones if you think you can fly this wreck!’.”  
“Fly,” Peridot cackled, “We’re not using this vessel to fly! We’re using it to trap you!” She pushed a button that trapped them in the room. “Isn’t this nice, Cats Eye? No more Crystal Gems running around, messing with our plans, destroying my things… It looks like we’ve got them right where we want them to be. How does it feel being so easily outsmarted, you clods?”  
Most of them looked mortified, but Amethyst walked up closer to the screen and said, “Hey, uh, this is Amethyst. I don’t appreciate being called a clod, you clo-”  
“Enough talk,” Peridot cut her off, “Prepare yourself for annihilation!” She pressed a button to start the barrage of attacks and got rid of the big screen, but brought up a whole bunch of small screens where we could watch them, but where they couldn’t see us. “Ah, now we just have to watch and wait. Before long, these inferior gems will be no more, we can go home, and then I’ll be praised for single handedly getting rid of the Crystal Gems and keeping Yellow Diamond’s prized Cats Eye safe from harm!”  
“Oh yes, you’ve done nothing but kept my safety at the top of your priorities this whole time.” I said sarcastically.  
“I know! Aren’t I amazing?” She obviously didn’t understand the nature of my statement. “Oh, oh, wait! This is the part of the plan that’s going to be amazing!”  
She ran over to a scanner and pointed excitedly to one of the screens. I looked to the one she pointed at and noticed that she had created a hologram of herself.  
“Peridot!” Pearl’s voice came through the room’s speaker and she charged at the Peridot hologram.  
“Pearl, don’t just…” Garnet growled out to her, but it didn’t matter; all Pearl was slashing at was an image.  
“Haha, you idiot.” Peridot mocked into the communicator. She dissipated the hologram and walked back to the controls to press another button.  
“There, that should do it,” she said with finality, “Did you see the look on that pearl’s face when she realized nothing was actually there?! Haha, oh that was priceless! Say what you will about our past encounters with them, but doing it this way was so worth the wait to beat them!”  
“Uhh… Peridot.” I tried to get her attention, noticing that one by one, the screens started going out.  
“Imagine what everyone on Homeworld would say when they find out it was a peridot that got rid of the Crystal Gems!”  
“Peridot.”  
“Oh man, I don’t know how they didn’t perish earlier than this! They’re all just so dumb!”  
“Peridot!”  
“What?”   
“The screens! We can’t see anything anymore!”  
“...Uh oh,” finally realizing the problem, she rushed back up to the controls to try and bring them back up, “Ugh, stupid button here, I don’t know what anything is! Agh! Blast this old gem tech! Where’d they go? Why isn’t anything working?!” Suddenly, the wall burst through behind us. We whipped around to see none other than the Crystal Gems standing behind us.  
Well, at least her question was answered.  
“Give it up you two,” Emerald called out to us, “You’ve got nowhere to run! Make this easy and we won’t have to fight!”   
“You really think this is the end,” Peridot formed her blaster at them again, “Hahaha! This, this is only the beginning… of our escape!” At last second she turned her blaster upwards and shot a hole through the ceiling. She pulled me close to her and started flying us towards the hole, “Well, I'd love to stick around and watch another one of your pathetic attempts to capture us, but I guess I'm just too smart for the likes of you lumpy, clumpy, clods!” She started laughing again, but stopped shortly when she had more weight added onto our flight.  
“I caught a peridot.” Steven sang out. Peridot tried to kick him off, but only ended up getting bit by him on the leg. Soon, the rest of the Crystal Gems started a chain, pulling us down significantly. In attempts to try and get him to let go, I started swatting at his face,  
“Let go of us you… persistent... little… whatever you are!”  
“Sorry you two, but your flight’s been cancelled.” Garnet gloated, but little did she know, we had one more trick up our sleeves.  
“Peridot, I’m gonna have to release your limb enhancer!” I looked up at her.  
“Mmm…” She hesitated.  
“Peridot!”  
“Fine! Just make it quick!” I pressed the button on the foot that Steven had a hold of, causing it to come off of Peridot and the Crystal Gems fell due to not having a hold on us anymore.  
“You’ll pay for this Crystal Gems,” she shrieked at them, “Just you wait!”  
At least we were safe from them… for the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, if you've enjoyed, please let me know!


	4. Catch and Release

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot and Cats Eye try to make their escape, but are thwarted once again by the Crystal Gems. What ever will they do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So halfway through writing this chapter (and only this chapter for some reason) I wrote the rest of it in third person rather than first person for some reason and didn't notice until I went to post this chapter. I went through and edited it, but I apologize if anything slipped through the cracks. Special thanks to SillyEmber for being the first person to comment on this story, you actually helped me stay motivated to keep writing today!

“Uuugghhh.” Peridot practically dropped me when we arrived back to the warp pad hub. She had miraculously been able to fly us all the way back there, but it had taken a few days to do it, “I never want to do that again.”  
“Hey, being held by metal arms isn’t exactly the ideal form of transportation either.” I told her crossly, rolling my shoulders while doing so.  
“Those stupid Crystal Clods,” she practically wailed, falling down on her face, “They ruin everything! Our last hope is just constantly running away until we actually get a response from Yellow Diamond.”  
“There’s gotta be something else we can do,” I sat down next to her, “We won’t make it if we keep doing that. They’re obviously tracking us through the warp pads so that would be out of the question and you can’t keep flying us everywhere. There has to be another option…”  
“Well,” she looked up at me, “There is a way, but it’s pretty risky.”  
“If it’s our last option, we’ll have to take it.”

…

Peridot left me at the warp hub, stating she would be back in a few minutes with our ‘Plan Z’. I did not expect, however, for her to show back up with the Steven struggling in her arms.  
“You know, when you said risky, I didn’t think you meant this.” I whimpered at her. This was ‘Plan Z’?! It was more like suicide!  
“Let me go!” Steven demanded, increasing his struggling.  
“Ugh, enough of this!” She huffed. She dropped him, but put him in her tractor beam to keep him still.  
“What do you want from me?” He asked, wildly looking around while Peridot walked them over to the Homeworld Warp Pad.  
“I want to get off of this lousy gem-forsaken planet!” She growled out before dropping him on the pad.  
“Huh?”  
“For once, I’m on the same page as him.” I added in.  
“You have to fix this!” Peridot pointed at the pad he was on top of.  
“Wait, what?” He asked, still confused.  
“Peridot, how would he know how to fix this,” I walked up to the two of them, “He’s not even a real gem.”  
“I know he fixed Lazuli’s gem,” she explained, “If he could do that, then he can fix this. He’s our last hope! And you better do it.” She turned to him and fired up her blaster. “Or else!”  
“Okay, okay,” he agreed, shaking his hands at her blaster, “Just give me a second! My mouth gets dry when I’m scared.” He licked his hand. “Here goes!” He dramatically lifted up his hand and slammed it down onto the warp pad; only to have nothing happen.  
“What was that,” she shrieked, “It didn’t do anything!”  
“It… doesn’t always work.” He explained while looking away from us.  
“What do you mean ‘it doesn’t always work’?!” I also shrieked. He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off. “This was our last chance! We’re going to die here!”  
“Hey,” he said softly, crawling closer to me, “Earth isn’t all that bad-”  
“It doesn’t matter what Earth is like! It’s not going to be anything soon!”  
“Wait, what do you mean?” Before I could answer his question, the sound of the warp pad being used alerted us and diverged our attention there.  
“There he is!” Pearl sighed in relief. Before they could realize we were there, I pulled Peridot out of her mopey state so we could make a quiet escape, but, as it always was with the Crystal Gems, that’s not how it worked out.  
“Cats Eye! Peridot!” Jet pointed at us.  
“Split!” Peridot ordered. I ran the other way from her while she attempted to shoot the scrambling gems. “Why can’t you leave us alone?!” With their spread out state, she attempted to fly over to me and grab me, but was quickly caught by Amethyst’s whip. Thinking she had the upper hand still, Peridot shot electricity through the whip, but it was stopped by Garnet grabbing it with her gauntlet.  
“You’re not getting away this time!” Garnet growled out while pulling Peridot down to the ground. In attempts to try and help her, I turned away to run towards her, but that proved to be my mistake. I was instantly hindered by Obsidian wrenching my arms behind my back and Jet’s spear threateningly close to me.  
“Wait, wait,” Peridot tried to reason as she was being surrounded by Garnet and Pearl, “You need me! I’m the only one who knows about the-” but she was cut off by Garnet poofing her.  
“Peridot!” I wailed, struggling against my restraints. I watched helplessly as Garnet bubbled her and Amethyst picked up the limb enhancers and threw them over the edge into the ocean. Oh man, if Peridot ever came back, she was not going to be happy about that.  
“Guys, she was trying to tell us something…” Steven pleaded. He seemed to be the only one besides me who was worried about her demise.  
“Those were just desperate lies of a gem who’s been caught,” Garnet muttered, “You don’t need to worry about her anymore.”  
“Um, Garnet,” Jet cut in, “What do we do with this one?” At her question, Garnet turned to face me, her glasses glinting dangerously as she started to march up to me. This was it. I was going to be reverted back into my gem and ultimately destroyed along with the Earth. Yellow Diamond would never find me, I’d never see Pearl or my home again. I lost. Horribly.  
“Wait,” Emerald shouted and jumped in front of Garnet, “Please don’t hurt her. She may be a bit misguided, but she’s had years worth of Yellow Diamond’s lies fed to her! I think we can turn her around. Please, Garnet?” Of course. Emerald just had to be my ‘saving grace’.   
“Fine,” Garnet agreed after a few minutes of thinking, “But she has to be tied up and under constant supervision until we decide what to do with her.” Amethyst took this as her cue to tie her whip around me.  
“No funny business with those claws of yours.” She threatened, tying the last knot.  
I just remained silent.

…

“C’mon, you’ve got to know something.” Steven pleaded to me. After we returned back to what I could only assume was their base, Steven was put in charge of watching me while everyone else retreated through a door behind the warp pad. I remained squiet and looked away from him.  
“You seemed so willing to talk earlier,” he sighed, “Will you answer my question if I untie you?  
“Perhaps.” I finally answered, giving him a sideways glance.  
“Okay, but no running away.” He inched around me to untie the whip around me.  
“It’s not like I have anywhere to go.” I muttered. I rubbed my wrists to alleviate the strain that was put on them from being tied together for so long.  
“Alright, I untied you, now will you please answer my question? What was Peridot trying to tell us earlier?” He came back in front of me.  
“The cluster.”  
“The what?”  
“The cluster. It’s an experiment that Peridot was supposed to check on. She needed to make sure its progress was still on track.”  
“Cluster? What is it? What does it do?”  
“Honestly? I don’t know. I’m not authorized to know. The only person who can answer those questions is Peridot.” So, that was a slight lie, I did know slightly more than I was letting on, but Steven seemed easily swayed. If there was a chance to get Peridot back and escape, I was going to take it.  
“If only we had a way to talk to her…” Steven muttered. Behind us, a noise caught my attention and the door that the Crystal Gems were using earlier opened.  
“Bingo,” Steven brightened up, “Follow me.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the room.  
“What is this place?” I asked. All around us were endless pink clouds.  
“This is my mom’s room,” he explained, “Well, I guess technically it’s my room, but that’s not important. Room! I need to speak to Peridot.” As if the room was sentient, Peridot appeared before us.  
“I’m the only one who knows about the-” Peridot started to say, but stopped, as if frozen in time.  
“I already know about the what, but I need to know more than that,” Steven sighed out while dissipating the image of Peridot, “Room, I need to go to the basement. The real basement. I know there’s a way down from here.” At his request, the room revealed what looked like was a hollow pole that shot through the clouded ground. “Thank you! Come on Cats Eye, follow me!” I copied his grip on the pole and slid down to the next room.  
The room was… Scary to say the least. It sent shivers down my spine as my eye wandered over the hundreds of bubbled gems that floated above us. I couldn’t help but wonder what exactly the Crystal Gems had planned for Peridot and the other gems that were trapped there.  
“Steven,” I whispered as I cautiously watched him try to find Peridot, “What did you guys plan on doing to Peridot once you sent her here? This looks like some form of harvesting room.”  
“What?” He asked incredulously while stopping his search to look at me. “Harvesting room? No! I mean, most of the gems here just stay bubbled until we can help them, but we’re still working on that last part.”  
“Somehow that’s even more cruel than just being harvested.” I mused harshly, walking away to inspect some of the bubbled gems. A lot of them were obviously corrupted gems and “gems” that had slipped from the cluster.  
“What do you mean?”  
“Well, how would you feel if a group of gems you didn’t know poofed you back into your gem, even though you hadn’t done anything wrong as far as you were concerned? Not knowing what was going to happen next. Poofed in one place, awoken in another, with no knowledge of what happened in between; only knowing that the life you were made for is now meaningless.”  
Steven opted to not answer and instead continued to look for Peridot, which thankfully wasn’t long until he found her and unbubbled her.  
“-the Cluster, you insufferable half-formed traitor clods!” It took a moment for Peridot to realize that she wasn’t back at the warp hub, but rather in the pseudo bubble prison as she wiggled her fingers that were no longer confined by her limb enhancers.  
“Oh my gosh,” Steven squealed in surprise, “You’re so cute!” While I didn’t know what made Peridot ‘cute’ by no longer having her limb enhancers, I could understand where Steven’s surprise came from. Without the enhancers, Peridot stood at around the same height as the Steven, when usually she was a bit taller than me. After being around Peridot for so long, it caused me to do a double take as well at her new height.  
“My limb enhancers,” Peridot screeched once she became focused on what was going on around her, “Where are my limb enhancers?! And Cats Eye, where is she? What have you done?!”  
“Peridot, its ok,” I walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, “I’m right here.”  
“But what did they do to my limb enhancers?”   
“Uh,” I looked away from her, “I’m not… sure…” It was better to lie to her now until she calmed down a bit more. I was going to tell her eventually. For sure. Maybe...  
“Aw,” Steven cooed, causing us to turn their attention back to him, “You’re like an angry slice of pie.”  
“You,” Peridot went back to pointing at him, “Stop talking! I demand to know where this place and where we-” at this point she noticed the bubbled gems above her “-Oh my stars! Are you going to harvest us?!”  
“No,” Steven huffed out, “What is up with you two and har-” but he was cut off by Peridot slapping him in the face, “Ow! Hey, that hurt.”  
“...It did?”  
“Yes! A lot!”   
“Yes! Feel my unbridled rage!” At this, she started slapping him repeatedly. I just sat back and watched their mini fight unfold. I could’ve used this as a distraction tactic to get out and run away, but leaving Peridot behind to the mercy of the Crystal Gems didn’t sit right with me. While Peridot probably would’ve left me behind if our roles were switched at this moment, such is the life of a Cats Eye, unable to leave those who care for them behind; even if Peridot hadn’t done anything to properly ‘take care’ of me yet.  
So I decided to wait for a better opportunity.  
“Hey, hey, hey,” he finally stopped her by pointing to Peridot’s chest, “What’s on your shirt?”  
“What’s a shirt?” She spat out while looking down to where he was pointing, but rather than answering he flicked her nose in retaliation. “Ow! That’s it!” She then proceeded to tackle Steven to the ground to continue slapping him.  
“Why are you acting like this?!” Steven yelled back, desperately trying to avoid her hands.  
“You smashed me into a limbless cloud-”  
“You trapped her in this bubble dungeon.” I dryly cut in.  
“Yes, and, you called me… cute!”  
“I didn’t poof you,” he cried back, “I freed you!”  
“...Why would you make such a miscalculation?” She warily crawled off of him to sit back next to me.  
“Back at the warp pad, what were you trying to say? I tried asking Cats Eye, but she said that she doesn’t know anything, that you’re the only one who has any information.”  
Peridot shot me a knowing look, catching on that this was an escape plan in the making, before spitting back,   
“She’s correct about that, I know everything there is to know about the Cluster, you pebble.”  
“Ok, but what is the Cluster? Wait, pebble?”  
“My mission. The reason why I’m stuck on this sad rock in the first place! I was to check progress on the Cluster! Just in and out, before it hatches. I wasn't supposed to get stuck here, but you and those Crystal Clods just had to stick your noses into places where they don’t belong, got more gems involved, and now it’s going to emerge with nothing stopping and we’re all gonna shatter!”  
“Ok, ok, wait, slow down. Emerging, hatching, shattering?”  
“You wanna know?” Peridot shot me another look.  
“Yes.”  
“You really wanna know?”  
“Yes?”   
“What’s your shirt?” She pointed at his chest, just like he had done earlier.  
“These are my banana pajamas-” He was forcefully stopped short when Peridot flicked his face when he looked down, giving her enough time to grab my hand and scramble towards the exit.  
“Ow! Wait, don’t run away!” He also scrambled to stand up and start chasing after us, “Stop! They’re gonna see you!” However, his warning was drowned out by Peridot’s maniacal laughter and my soft giggles at the thought of our escape as the exit drew near.  
“Freedom is ours!” Peridot shouted victoriously while raising our conjoined hands in the air. I turned towards her to say something, but stopped when something caught me eye.  
“Uh… Peridot-”  
“Wait!” Steven cut off my warning when he also burst through the exit, but also stopped when he saw what I was looking at.  
“What?” Peridot turned to see what we were looking at only to see Garnet, Emerald, Jadeite, and Obsidian looking back at us in surprise.  
“Look,” Peridot nervously stuttered out, obviously trying a new escape tactic, “Over there! A new planet to betray!” Obviously not fooled, Garnet whipped out her gauntlets and the others jumped at the ready to re-capture us.  
“Retreat!” Peridot yelled out, pushing me the other direction to get better ground coverage. We ran throughout the room as much as we could, but each viable exit was blocked off by at least one of the Crystal Gems. It wasn’t until Peridot brushed past me, grabbing me arm in the process, and pulled us through the closest door and locking it.  
“You may have won the war, but the battle isn’t over, Crystal Clods!” Peridot shouted at the door, but jumped back when a loud bang resounded on it in retaliation.  
“What is this place?” I asked once the Crystal Gems’ voices quieted down into muted mumbles on the other side.  
“Seems like we stumbled upon some sort of archaic think chamber,” Peridot mused as she checked every nook and cranny, “Roomy. With a fresh hint of Earth citrus.” She looked back at me with determination, “A perfect crossroads for our escape!” She turned back to opening a lid on something that looked akin to a chair, but with water filled inside and a hole that led to somewhere below it.  
“Do you think we can escape through here?” I asked, walking over to join Peridot to peer inside.  
“Perhaps.” Peridot sat inside it. “Though, it seems we can’t force our way through it.”  
“Well, it wouldn’t make sense to have a hole that goes downwards if it isn’t used for anything.”  
“Maybe that lever sticking out from it has something to do with making it work.”   
Our musings were stopped when Garnet’s voice boomed from the other side,  
“Peridot! Cats Eye! Open the door!”  
Our eyes widened and Peridot motioned for me to quickly pull the lever, but when I did, it only caused her to circle in the water.  
“If you’re trying to flush yourselves down the toilet, it won’t work. Trust me, I’ve already tried.” Amethyst’s voice then cut through.   
“How did they get out,” Pearl’s voice joined, “We bubbled Peridot and Cats Eye was tied up!”  
“Peridot,” I whispered, still trying to listen to what the others were saying as it was obvious now they could hear what we were doing, “What are we going to do? They all probably know that we’re attempting to escape, so we need to think of something fast.”  
“Maybe if we stay quiet enough, they’ll get bored and go away?” She whispered back.  
“Cluster,” we tuned back in to hear Jet ask, “That’s new. What is it?”  
“That’s all I know.” Steven answered.  
“That’s right you, dirt bombs,” Peridot suddenly yelled back, “You don’t even know what’s coming!”  
“Peridot,” I harshly whispered, “What happened to being quiet?!”  
“I got bored.” Peridot shrugged, causing me to roll my eye.  
“Alright,” Garnet sighed through the door, “We’ll talk you two. No more fighting, just a civil conversation.”  
“As if we’d negotiate with you, you filthy war machine.” Peridot spat out before I could get a say in.  
“Ok. Let’s kick their butts.”  
“Wait!” Steven warned.  
“Yeah,” Peridot cackled back, “Destroy me again, and have fun trying to talk to me when I'm in a bubble!” I quickly covered her mouth before she could say anything else to ruin our chances of escaping even more.  
The two of us waited as the Crystal Gems’ voices turned back down into quiet murmurs and moved away from the door. I positioned myself near it to keep listening for anything while Peridot continued to inspect the room.  
“Well, I don’t think they’re coming back over here any time soon,” I sighed out after a while, “But I don’t think they’ll go far enough away for us to actually leave. What are we going to do?”  
“For now I think it’s best to play the waiting game,” Peridot answered back, “They seem to care about not breaking anything in their base, so, for now, we’re safe.”  
Sure, we were safe, but we weren’t home, which was what I wanted most of all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, if you've enjoyed this, please let me know! Comments and kudos are always appreciated!


	5. When It Rains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we go more in depth into Cats Eye's inner thoughts about her situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness, there is so much talking in this episode! This chapter diverts more from the episode due to the fact I already had a vision on how I wanted this chapter to look before I revisited the episode. Another special thanks to SillyEmber for commenting on the last chapter, I'm glad you liked it! I do have to say, describing a toilet is a lot harder than you think it would be haha! I'm so glad you're enjoying this story enough to keep reading as I update! Updates will be a bit slower these coming weeks due to the fact that I'm looking for a house and I've bumped up my work hours, but we're looking about at least one chapter per week, maybe 2-3 if I can find some extra free time. Thank you to everyone who left kudos and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

I had no idea how long we had been trapped there, but long enough for the Steven to come in and out on a multitude of occasions, claiming that, because he was part human, he had to prepare for his day unlike other gems. He was the only one we had grown to trust, agreeing that if he was kind enough (“Dumb enough!” Peridot had clarified) to originally free us, he could be our leverage to getting out. It was during one of the rare moments that we had without him in the room that someone started pounding on the door.  
“Open the door, you two! If this Cluster is putting us in danger, you need to tell us what it is so we can stop it!” It was Garnet banging on the door.  
“No,” Peridot yelled back, “I hate you. I’m not telling you anything about the Cluster!” While Peridot still had her snark, she was losing her bite. It was obvious that just waiting everything out was wearing her out, as it was me, but it was all we could do at the time, but keeping lively was hard when we were stuck in such a small room with the Crystal Gems screaming at us constantly.  
“Oh, come on,” Amethyst sighed back, “Is it like a big… hunk of… granola?”  
“What’s granola?” I asked Peridot, assuming she would know, but she just shrugged in response.  
“I’m sure it’s not granola,” Pearl said, “Now I’m sure we can reach some sort of an agreement with the two of you. Perhaps a trade is in order?”  
“Take me home.” I practically cried first. Besides talking to Peridot, and on occasion Steven, I was left alone with my thoughts, I couldn’t help but think about Yellow Diamond and Pearl. What were they doing? Was Pearl lonely without me? Or was my absence not even noticed?  
“You know we can’t do that.” Emerald sighed. She sounded almost sad, but how could someone like her feel sympathy for someone like me?  
“Alright, then give me back my leg enhancements and my arm attachments with my screen and my log and all my information,” Peridot then bartered, “ Oh wait, you destroyed them! So, no! I don’t think we can reach some sort of agreement!” There was a collective groan from the other side before the room fell back into silence.  
“Peridot,” I said after sometime, “Are we ever getting out of here?”  
“I don’t know.” She turned looked away from me.

…

“You guys can come out now, they left, you know?” We heard Steven’s voice float to us from farther into their base to us. I sent a questioning look towards Peridot, because while it would’ve been nice to leave the small room and, as far as we knew, we could trust Steven, but I knew that I didn’t want to be caught out of our safety net if the Crystal Gems were to come back without any notice, so I left the decision up to her.  
“N-no,” Peridot stammered back, obviously in a debate with herself about leaving the room as well, “We like it in here!”  
“Okay…”   
Peridot opened her mouth as if to say more, but a loud thunderous noise that almost shook the base cut her off.  
“What was that?” I asked her.  
“I-I don’t know.”  
“It couldn’t be-”  
“No, it’s way too early for it to start hatching.” However her worried tone contradicted her statement. My nerves started to calm a bit, even if she didn’t sound too convincing, but another thunderous bang shot them through the roof once more.  
Peridot shot me a worried look before running out of the room while screaming, “It’s happening!” Causing me to run after her in panic.  
“What?!” Steven asked worryingly, but calmly walking over to us.  
“The Cluster!”  
“Really?”  
“W-well what else could be making that horrible-” My explanation to him was cut off when the loud noise resounded again, causing both Peridot and I to screech and cling on to each other.  
“It’s pounding on the Earth from the inside,” she wailed, “This is it! This is the end of the world!”  
“Oh! That’s just thunder.” He explained.  
“What?” We both questioned, slowly letting go of each other.  
“Yeah, everything is fine, it’s just thunder. It happens when it rains.” His explanation was only met with our questioning gazes. “You don’t know about rain?”  
“...I don’t know anything without my screen.” Peridot looked at the ground.  
“And I don’t know anything other than what pertains to my duties.” I supplied, but feeling bad for Peridot. While it was only natural that I didn’t know anything about the Earth, Peridot’s enhancements were a part of her; the information they provided included. I couldn’t imagine being stripped down like that.  
“O-ok, it’s ok,” Our responses obviously worried him, “Follow me.” He led us over to another part of the base to a pot that had a steaming liquid inside. “Pretend this soup is the ocean. When the sun warms it up, water evaporates into clouds, like this steam.” He opened the lid to the pot, releasing said steam into the air. “But when the clouds get really heavy, it rains.”  
“So, scalding liquid falls from the sky?” Peridot asked.  
“No, no, it’s just water, it can’t hurt you. Here, why don’t I show you?” With that, he ran out the door and started jumping up and down in the “rain”.  
“Steven, wait!” Peridot called worryingly with us running to the doorway, just shy of actually stepping outside.  
“Come on,” Steven called to us, “ Look, I'm okay, it's just water! This is just something that happens on Earth! Isn't it cool?”  
Peridot hesitantly held her hand out in the rain, testing to see if it was actually okay, then fully stepped outside. I couldn’t bring myself to do that. Peridots were a lot more daring than Cats Eyes, which was why they were usually the ones in charge of up keeping dangerous colonies and experiments. Cats Eyes were only meant to stay in the background.  
“Yeah! You did it, Peridot,” Steven ran back to us, “Cats Eye, don’t you wanna join us? It’s cool!”  
I didn’t answer and shrunk further into the doorway.  
“Steven?” Peridot looked towards the sky.  
“Hm?” He diverted his attention back to her.  
“I’m going to say something.” She took a deep breath and looked back to him. “Thank you.”  
“For what?”  
“For explaining this “rain” business to me.”  
“Oh! No problem.”  
“Yes, you’re a much more intelligent creature than I initially thought.”  
“Um, that’s… good?”  
“Yes, much more useful than those… clods… Steven! I’ve made up my mind!”  
“About what exactly?”  
“I’ve decided to share some… information with you!”   
“Aww, I know you use my toothbrush.”  
“N-no! Well… yes, but it’s about the Cluster.”   
I opened my mouth to disagree with her, because, while he was the most trustworthy of the bunch, could we really trust him with information about the cluster? Before, I could say anything, Steven responded with “You cracked!” Causing both her and I to check her gem.  
“I haven’t cracked!”  
“Wait, you have to tell the Crystal Gems. They need to know about this.”  
“No! I don't want to talk to them! You're the only one I need! I can show you now, but I have nothing! My arm attachments, my fingers, my screen, my log, it's all gone! But all of my logs up to date 6-5-2 still exist, backed up in Facet Five of the Prime Kindergarten!”  
“You want me to take you to the Kindergarten? I don’t know…”  
“Steven, don’t you want to know about the Cluster?”   
“Hmm… Ok, we can go.”  
“Yes!”  
“But…”  
“But there’s always a catch…” I grumbled.

…

The catch ended up being that Peridot and Steven went to the Kindergarten, holding hands the entire time, while I stayed at the base in case the Crystal Gems came back before them so I could tell them where the other two were. He told me to wait on one of the chairs in the room he called “the Kitchen” so I could easily stay in sight for whoever returned first. I silently prayed to the stars that Peridot and Steven would come back first, but knowing my luck, of course that didn’t happen.  
When the wrap pad activated, I perked up thinking I would see the two arriving back, but instead saw the Crystal Gems, causing me to shrink back.  
“One of them’s out!” Jet pointed at me once the warp pad turned off, causing all of them to turn towards me. Of course, they all jumped into action, immediately pointing an array of weapons at me.  
“Woah,” I raised my hands in the air, “I’m sure we can be calm about this! If I was trying to escape, I would’ve been long gone by now.” This caused them to slightly lower the weapons, but they were still wary.  
“Where’s Steven and Peridot?” Garnet questioned me. I sighed and explained the events that had happened after they had initially left. Garnet growled at my response while Pearl started panicking about “the dangers of the Kindergarten”.  
“You two stay here and watch her,” Garnet instructed Obsidian and Jet, “The rest of us are gonna go retrieve the other two.” And with that, they left.  
Thankfully the two charged to watch me recalled their weapons, but that did little to ease the tension in the room. I couldn’t bring myself to look at them, suddenly interested in the pattern on the table in front of me while worry plagued my thoughts. What was going to happen now? Were both Peridot and I going to be poofed now? Pearl seemed to know how dangerous the Kindergarten actually was; were Peridot and Steven okay?  
“Why did you stay?” Obsidian’s soft voice pulled me from my thoughts.  
“What?”  
“You had every opportunity to run away; why didn’t you?”  
At this point, I dared to look him in his eyes. “Granted, while assigned this mission, I was to be in charge of Peridot, but I was also given orders to do whatever she ordered, so I’m doing just that; following through on my orders. Plus…” At this point I couldn’t keep looking at him, just allowing my sentence to trail off and remaining quiet. A part of me wanted to tell him that I had come to care for Peridot and, in turn, Steven, but another part of me didn’t want to show that weakness to him.   
Even though I didn’t finish my sentence, something in the air changed that told me he already knew what I didn’t say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please like and comment if you enjoy this story, it definitely keeps me going :)


	6. Back To The Barm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot and Pearl fight over who should lead the project to destroy the cluster. Cats Eye has some introspection about herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh goodness, where have been? It's just been crazy as most of you probably understand, hopefully I can soon get some free time to devote to writing here soon.

When the others returned, Peridot told me that she had decided to tell the Crystal Gems more about the Cluster. I wished to disagree with her, but I knew that if I voiced those opinions then not only would I have the Crystal Gems against me, but also Peridot, so I kept my opinions to myself for the time being. Unfortunately, Steven had to go to ‘sleep’, so the Gems retired to their rooms and Peridot and I decided to wait out the night in the ‘bathroom’, as Steven called it.

“Why did you decide to tell the Crystal Gems about the Cluster?” I asked her once the door was shut.

“I made several calculations and came to the conclusion that in order for us to survive, we need to rely on the help of those clods to destroy the Cluster.” She responded.

“Destroy the Cluster? Doesn’t that go against your mission? What would Yellow Diamond say?”

“If help hasn’t been sent by now, it must mean that we and the Earth aren’t her priority.”

“Not her priority? Did you forget who I am? Who I am TO Yellow Diamond? Or need I remind you once we return home?”

“Oh please. Need I remind you what you are? You’re just a Cats Eye, you’ve probably already been replaced and forgotten at this point. Right now, we just need to focus on surviving. I’m sure once they learn the Cluster has yet to be hatched, they’ll question what happened, and it’s easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission at this point.”

She had struck something in me when she said that. She was right, I was just Cats Eye, regardless if I was Yellow Diamond’s or not. Instead of responding, I turned away from her and hoped that morning would come faster, so I wouldn’t have to be stuck in such a small room with her for much longer.  
…

“Ahem, ahem. As it seems I have no other option, I have conceded to reveal some important information to you Crystal Gems.” We were all seated in front of Peridot as she started her ‘presentation’ about the Cluster. I originally tried to sit as far away from them as possible, but Garnet had picked me up and sandwiched me between her and Pearl. I pouted and sent Peridot looks trying to tell her to hurry this up so I didn’t have to be stuck there for long.

She snapped her fingers signifying Steven to come out wearing a box with the Earth drawn on it.

“This,” she said, “Is the Earth. At the very center of the planet's core lies... the Cluster! Rotate.” Steven turned around, showing a drawing of the Cluster on the backside of the box. “This is the Cluster. A massive, artificial fusion composed of millions of Gem shards. It has laid dormant for thousands of years within this planet's crust. When this Gem activates and takes its form, the result will be catastrophic.”

“This abomination must be stopped.” Garnet said.

“But how,” Pearl spoke over me to her, “We'll need to build some sort of machine to take us to the center of the Earth, it'll have to-”

“Hey,” Peridot cut in, “I wasn't finished speaking! What we need is to build some sort of machine to take us to the center of the Earth. It'll need to withstand up to 360 gigapascals of pressure and temperatures of 9800 degrees.”

“Well,” Pearl stood up, “we mustn't waste time. We need to start finding parts for this machine immediately.”

“Yes. Obviously. We'll start by dismantling all devices inside this dwelling.”

“What?” Steven sounded panicked at this. Before anyone could even move, Peridot started destroying things throughout the room, muttering about how it would be useful for what we needed. Steven started following her around the room, trying to stop her while the rest of us just watched her.

“Wait,” Steven finally got her to pause, “I have a better idea that doesn't involve destroying the house!”  
…

Jet and Jadeite decided to stay back and clean up the mess that Peridot had made while the rest of us went to the new location that Steven called ‘the Barn’.

“All right,” Pearl said while setting up a board once we had arrived, “What we have here in the barn should be adequate enough for us to get started. First, I recommend we organize the component types and assemble a rough blueprint based off what we have available.” The rest had circled around it while I sat on a nearby fence. Steven sent me a concerned glance, but didn’t say anything else about it.

“Hmm. Good, yes, this is adequate. Thank you. You can go now.” Peridot said.

“Uh, what?” Pearl asked.

“Um… that will be all?” Peridot clapped her hands together. “Uh, how do you get her to leave?” I was confused on how Pearl was acting too. Had she been away from Rose Quartz for so long that she forgot how to properly act? Or do the others just allow her to act like that?

“Excuse me,” Pearl scoffed, “I’m not leaving!”

“Yeah! She's gotta stay here to help us build the drill thing, right?” Steven asked.

“No, no,” Peridot laughed slightly, “You’re confused. A pearl can’t build a thing like this.”

“Why not?”

“Because pearls aren't for this! They're for standing around, and looking nice, and holding your stuff for you, just like Cats Eye and she’s doing a great job of standing around and being out of the way.” 

Pearl shot me a glare before saying, “That's enough! If we're going to work together, you're going to have to listen to me.”

“Listen to you,” Peridot laughed again before turning to Steven, “Did you teach her how to talk like that?”

“What are you talking about?” Steven asked.

“She's a pearl. She's a made-to-order servant just like the hundreds of other Pearls being flaunted around back on Homeworld.”

“Wait… hundreds of pearls?”

“Well, yes, bu-” Pearl tried to give an explanation to him, but was cut off by Peridot grabbing her sash.

“And she looks like a fancy one, too. Who do you belong to anyway?”

“Nobody!” Pearl snatched her sash back.

“Then, what are you for?” Pearl recoiled at her words as the others looked stunned. “Well, you can belong to me for now. Ha! A peridot with a pearl, what would they say back home?”

“Now listen here, you tiny twerp! In case you've forgotten, you're on our turf now! And I didn't fight a thousand-year war for this planet's independence to take orders from the likes of you!”

“Excuse me? I am a natural technician and a certified Kindergartener. I was made for this! You were made to take orders, not to give them!”

“Woah, woah, hang on guys,” Steven got in between them, “Now, we can all agree that you are both good at building things, so can't you just try listening to each other?”

“No!” They shouted at the same time.

“I'm as good at building things as you. Better, even!” Pearl shouted over Steven to Peridot.

“Ha,” Peridot laughed, “Name one thing you can engineer better! Go on!”

“Robots.” Steven giddily whispered.

“Hm?” Now the two’s attention was focused back on Steven.

“You should build robots,” he explained, “Giant robots! I see a race. A giant robo-race! With prizes! Giant robo-prizes!”

“You mean like a competition?” Pearl contemplated.

“Yeah! To see who’s better at building stuff!”

“What are these ‘robots’ you speak of?” Peridot asked.

“They're like those funky marble guys you were sending! Only bigger, and you can ride them!” He answered.

“Ha! Building one of these robots will be easy!”

“Well, I can build one faster!” Pearl challenged her as the two ran inside the building they were originally in front of.

At this point, Jet and Jadeite had returned from their base to join everyone else that was gathered around the doorway to watch Peridot and Pearl furiously building their ‘robots’, leaving me alone. While this wasn’t abnormal for myself, it felt… weird. For the past while, I had Peridot as my constant companion and even before that I had Pearl (sometimes even Blue Diamond’s pearl) in the background with me. The last time I had to stay out of sight out of mind utterly alone was before the war.

“You could come join us, ya know?” I was pulled out of my thoughts to see Obsidian standing in front of me.

“Oh, um…” I looked off to the side, “Peridot doesn’t like me interfering with her work, it’s best if I just hang back.” While not untrue, I just didn’t know how to explain to him that I didn’t want to be anywhere near the Crystal Gems without the possibility of someone getting upset and ruining things for Peridot and I.

“So, she speaks like that to you too?”

“Huh?” I looked back to him in confusion to see him looking concerned.

“You could be so much more than what others make you out to be. You don’t have to be put inside a box.”

I was going to tell him that I had no idea what he was going on about, but before I could open my mouth, our conversation was cut short by Peridot and Pearl jumping outside in their newly built robots.

Well that was fast.

I thought that would be the end of it and he would go back to join the others who were now ogling the machines, but instead Garnet saw us at the fence and came over to take a seat next to me causing everyone to join us, sans Steven who stood in front of us.

So much for my alone time.

“Ladies and gentle-gems, welcome to the first annual Robolympics,” Steven shouted enthusiastically, earning a few claps from the Crystal Gems, “This competition will test our robo-engineers' skills of robo-construction and robo-piloting. Whoever wins will get to be in charge of building the Cluster-drill-machine-thing. Let the games begin!”

...

The ‘games’ ended up lasting all day long, by the time the sun started to set Peridot and Pearl had equal points with one last challenge to go. Both of them had to throw a truck (which Steven told me was a type of transportation that humans used to get around) as far as they could and whoever threw it the farthest would win.

“Alright guys, this is the final event!” Steven announced.

“You got this, P!” Amethyst cheered Pearl on.

“Woo!” Emerald joined in. Pearl seemed to be spurred on by them encouraging her, but it seemed to make Peridot mad.

“Cats Eye,” she barked at me, “Aren’t you gonna cheer me on?”

“Oh, uh,” I shrunk back from the side eye I suddenly received from some of the other gems, “Woo?”

“Ugh, whatever.” She turned back around and got ready to throw.

“Ready, set, chuck!” Steven yelled and the two threw their trucks as hard as they could.

“Woah.” Everyone watched in astonishment as the trucks flew into the sunset and disappeared.

“I uh, guess you both get a point for that one,” Steven turned back to the board he was tallying on to count up the points, “Looks like our final score is... a tie! Well, that settles it! You both get to lead the project together!”

“No,” Peridot screeched, “This isn’t over! I demand we have a tiebreaker!”

“Ugh, let’s just give it a rest,” Pearl sighed out, “That’s it, we tied, we’re the same, let’s move on.” She started to wheel her robot away, but Peridot stopped her by grabbing a leg.

“No! You’re a pearl! You are beneath me! I’ll always be better than you and nothing I’ve seen today will ever change that!” Trying to get away, Pearl used her robot to kick Peridot's, which ended up flying backwards and landing on its back, while yelling, 

“Well have you ever seen a pearl do this?!”

“So, it’s a fight you want?!” Peridot yelled back, quickly getting her robot back up and retaliating. When the fight broke out, the Crystal Gems broke out into chaos, half were egging Pearl on to keep fighting Peridot and the other half were consoling Steven as he cried over how giant robots weren't meant to fight. I watched with wide eyes, stuck wondering if I should start egging Peridot on like they were with Pearl or attempt to stop the fight. Garnet was the only one who stayed back, calm and collected, who then turned to me and said,

“Don’t worry, everything will work itself out.” 

Before I could ask her how she knew that, Peridot’s voice cut me off.

“This is pointless! There’s no way you can beat me! You’re an accessory! Somebody’s shiny toy! Where do you get off acting like you’re your own gem?! You’re just a pearl!”

Even though I knew it shouldn’t have, but Peridot’s words stirred in me. I felt hurt, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. All I knew was that, even though she was talking to (yelling at) Pearl, it felt like she was spitting those words at me. 

I was pulled from mulling over that by a loud crash. I refocused on what was happening to see that Peridot had slammed Pearl into the ground. The Crystal Gems instantly stopped what they were doing to run over to help Pearl up. All the while Peridot jumped out of her robot, celebrating her victory. I tentatively left my spot on the fence to stand behind her.

“Hey,” she exclaimed to me when she noticed that I was the only one paying attention to her, “Why aren’t they listening to me? I won! I’m the natural leader! She’s just a common pearl!”

“You’re wrong,” Steven’s shout caused us to look back at them, “If pearls are really like you say they are then Pearl isn’t common at all! She trained herself to fight! She learned how to build things! And she works hard to be greater than she already is! That’s not common; that’s amazing!”

We stood in silence for a moment before Jadeite clapped her hands together and said,

“Well! We better get this cleaned up!” Then they split up to start picking up the mess the fight had left behind.

"B-but I won? What about the rules?” Peridot cried out.

“Welcome to Earth.” Garnet said as she passed us by.

“Peridot,” I said softly while putting my hand on her shoulder, “I don’t like it just as much as you don’t, but we’ve got to work with them to have a chance at surviving. If we’re just constantly fighting, we’ll never get anywhere.”

All she did was look down in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and kudos if you've enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> Again, if you like this please let me know! This'll be updated pretty regularly since I've been writing as the show has been releasing! Thank you :)


End file.
